Book Thirteen of The Desert Fathers explores the theme of hospitality.
Saying 2 leads us to a very important place with respect to the keeping of spiritual disciplines. When Cassian and his friends came from Palestine to Egypt, a hermit welcomed them and offered them hospitality. But the hermit did not continue to keep his rule of fasting. When Cassian asked why the hermit didn’t fast, he replied, “Fasting is useful and necessary, but we can choose to fast or not to fast. God’s law demands from us perfect love….When I have said goodbye to you, I can take up the rule of fasting again.”
This is one of the great reminders in spiritual formation: the means of grace are means, not ends. The end is “perfect love.” In the case of receiving guests, the law of love shows that the better way is to welcome them and care for them—to focus upon them, and not upon ourselves.
The hermit was right, when the guests leave, we can return to our rules and disciplines. But so long as they are in our care, they are the object of our affection, and by showing them hospitality, we become agents of God’s love.
We get everything backward when we treat the disciplines as ends in themselves. No act, however sacred or necessary, must come before love of God and neighbor.
Oboedire 